Preview of EA Sports’ Fight Night Champion

At an EA event last week in San Francisco, members of the press had a chance to get a first-look at EA Sports’ next boxing title, Fight Night Champion for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The biggest addition to the game is the new Champion Mode where players will get control of ‘Andre’, the game’s lead character. Much of the mode is being kept under wraps but a brief demo had Andre in a bare-knuckle fight while in prison that teased the game’s grittier nature.

Legacy Mode, which serves as a career mode is also part of the game and lets players travel all over the world to train and build up their fighter’s attributes. Certain locations such as Big Bear, Calif. will help increase a fighter’s stamina while a rugged area like Philadelphia helps with chin and toughness. The length of training camp will be determined by how much it costs to travel from your fighter’s hometown to a particular city.

The controls appear to have been reworked as simply tapping the right analog stick in a certain direction will result in a particular punch, as opposed to having to rotate the stick in a half-circle for hooks. Players will be able to level-up each punch, such as a left hook, right cross etc. up to level 20.

While getting stunned in a previous Fight Night title could be shaken off by either clinching or getting up from a knockdown, Fight Night Champion’s new sy stem adds a bit more strategy by forcing the player to change their strategy in order to shake off the cobwebs.

Graphically, the game has undergone another make-over in comparison to the last two entries. The visuals are much more stylized as can be seen from the screenshots and teaser trailer while the just-confirmed M-rating explains the bloodier and more graphic nature of the game.

While we can expect a very large roster of fighters, EA has currently confirmed the inclusion of Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De la Hoya, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Ricky Hatton.